September was an extremely busy month with lots of excitement

KAYE SCHMITZ

from all directions. 

First, the FPP was awarded a Financial Services Contract from the Financial Stability Partnership (FSP) of United Way of Central Florida to work with them and their partner agencies to strengthen their service offerings. The FPP will do a capacity analysis, planning, and training for integrated delivery of financial stability services with United Way of Central Florida agencies. The Financial Stability Partnership has set up a terrific model that we believe will be beneficial to other parts of the state as well.  Thanks go to Scott Lonsberry from United Way and Rob Sansome, Chair of the Financial Stability Partnership group, for putting such a great proposal together. We are really looking forward to working alongside them on this initiative. 

Next, the FPP, University of Florida IFAS, and United Way of Miami were contacted by Dr. Dong-Ho Jang, a Professor of Social Work from Namseoul University in Chonan Chungnam, South Korea, about making a visit to Florida to study our organizations. In Dr. Jang's own words, "I searched the Internet for an effective micro-level program that promotes financial stability for low-income families.  I found the FPP, an innovative and impressive collaborative organization."  Dr. Jang and his group will also be hosted by Dr. Michael Gutter, from the University of Florida IFAS to learn about the Florida Master Money Mentor program, by United Way of Miami and South Florida Urban Ministries, and at two of the FPP Regional Meetings, co-hosted by Heather Mitchell and R. Jai Gillum of United Way of the Big Bend and Brian Taylor and Ron Sharpe at United Way of Northwest Florida. We at the FPP will also spend a lot of time with Dr. Jang so he will, again in his words, "know how the FPP makes people smart in making financial decisions, especially under the recent economic downturn."  We consider it quite an honor for Dr. Jang to have found all of us via the Internet and make the trip to Florida to spend time with us.

The highlight of the month was CFED's Assets Learning Conference in Washington, DC.  The speakers were great and included Richard Cordray, Director of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Corey Booker, Mayor of Newark, New Jersey-who was truly inspirational, Jose Cisneros, Treasurer of San Francisco and originator of many of the programs we all copy, Martha Kanter, Under Secretary of the U. S. Department of Education, Eugene Robinson, award winning columnist for the Washington Post, and many, many others. The workshops also offered an abundance of information and were so good we plan to bring a number of them to the FPP Conference in 2013 so you can all benefit from them.

The FPP was fortunate to get a number of scholarships for the conference and fifteen FPP members-including seven board members-attended the two day conference and various other meetings. The group, in addition to me, consisted of Janet Hamer from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta (Jacksonville Branch), Daniella Levine and Kamalah Fletcher from Catalyst Miami, Evan Goldman from Children's Services Council of Broward, Felipe Pinzon of Hispanic Unity, Maureen Quinlan from United Way of Marion County, Jeff Winkler from Real$ense, Rob Sansome from TrueWealth KIDS, Dawn Lockhart from Family Foundations along with her board member Dick Valentine, Debbie Pierson from Bank of America, Vanessa Benevides from United Way of Miami, Darrin Liddell from South Florida Urban Ministries, and Karen Landry from War on Poverty and RAISE Florida.  The meeting culminated in visits to the two Florida Senator offices on Friday afternoon-and ten of the fifteen Florida attendees were able to make those visits. Our delegation was very well received and Florida made a great showing in our nation's capital.

Please congratulate Dawn Lockhart and her team at Family Foundations, when you get a chance, for receiving two awards during the National Ways to Work Conference in September. Their awards are the 2012 Premier Path Program Award/$3,000 Prize, which they won for 40 loans with a less than 24% delinquency rate and a less than 12% default rate and the 2012 Most Improved Program Award/$7,000 Prize.  This is a wonderful accomplishment for a national program and the Family Foundations team has made a significant impact on the lives of lower income families in Northeast Florida.  

Don't forget about the upcoming FPP Regional Meetings, held this year in conjunction with many of our partners. We are thrilled that six of our meetings will be sponsored by The University of Florida IFAS team and the Florida Information Network. The seventh meeting, in Ft. Myers will be sponsored by IBERIABANK. We are very grateful to our sponsoring partners for their generosity. The meetings are:

• October 9, from 10:30 am to 1:30 pm - Real$ense Prosperity Campaign, Jacksonville, FL
• October 10, from 12 noon to 3:00 pm - Heart of Florida United Way, Orlando, FL
• October 11, 11:00 am to 1:30 pm - Hilton Garden Inn, Ft. Myers, FL
• October 16, from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm - Envision Credit Union, Tallahassee, FL
• October 17, from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm - Chipola College, Marianna, FL
• October 23, from 12:30 pm to 3:30 pm - The Urban League, Ft. Lauderdale, FL
• November 13, from 9:00 am to 11:00 am - Juvenile Welfare Board, Clearwater, FL

At some of these gatherings you will get to meet with visiting professors from South Korea and at all of them you will hear more about the 5th Annual FPP Conference - "All That Jazz."  You won't want to miss the details behind the theme. This will be the last sequential FPP conference and the next one after this will be in 2015. Make plans on your calendar and in your budget to join us.

Sincerely,